mjd1001

On a side note, why is CBC still standard Def on Spectrum? For those in norther Niagara county (Lewiston, youngstown, Wilson, Ransomville, Olcott...etc.....you can use one of those cheap HD antennas on your TV and get the high-def feed of HNIC out of toronto. With no compression it looks SO much better than any High Def that spectrum offers.

The home-away record is bafflilng. Last year they played at a 106 point team on the road, a 76 point team at home. This year this game puts them below .500 at home again (its early, but a 70 point pace at home). FYI, league average home/away record not counting the Sabres is about a 96 point pace at home, 83 point pace at home...this season. So yes, teams DO play much better at home than away...but the Sabres continue to not be able to do so.

On a note not totally related to this game....the reason you need to have patience with some young players. Travis Konecny. He was a late first rounder, not an elite pick. He's been a good player from the time he got in the league, but not a star. Through is first 6 seasons in the league, he was a 15-16 minute guy. 110 goals in 428 games (about a 20-21 goal guy). Good player, good offensively, but not even close to great or a star. Now last year he starts the season at age 25, and since then he has scored 40 goals in his lasat 71 games ( over 46 goals per 82 games). He was always a decent guy, but starting when he turned 25, he as basically more than doubled his scoring rate for the past season and so far this year.

Yeah, worst game of the year by far. Shots on goal don't show the picture of how bad this game was. Bad D-play, a ton of breakdowns, not much control of the puck in the offensive zone. No one stood out in a positive way. Just a bad, bad game. Hope this means nothing in terms of how good the team is, put it away, forget about it, pretend it didn't exist. Worst game of the year.

How about this one to think about.... Boston is 77-17-6 in their last 100 games. San Jose is 3-17-3 in their last 23 games. Boston has as many regulation losses in their last 100 games spanning parts of 3 different seasons as San Jose has in their last 23, the number of games you normally pay in 2.5 months.

As per my original post, I mostly agree. I said he is 'shot'. I'd like to see someone like Biro, or Rousek, take his role on the ice (whoever would be best on that 4th line.) With that said I don't think he is totally sinking this team. Look at what Toronto fans are talking about Ryan Reaves, now he appears to be "SHOT/Done" He looks like a bad/slow college player trying to keep up in the NHL where it is obvious he can't really do anything other than harm his 4 teammates out there. I don't think Okposo is at that level, I just think now a faster, hungry young guy might be a better option for the Sabres.

Not much at this point. I do not want to root for Okposo to do poorly, but if we go another month or two and his play is the same, or worse, I have to imagine at some point they may consider a change, even if it is just giving him a few more 'veteran rest days off'.

I'd like to see the captain take a seat for a few games and see someone like Rousek replace him in that 4th line role.

2 games in the next 2 days. You want more people at the games, winning the next 2 might be a big step to getting there. Will it ensure sellouts? Nope, but it would put this team: 1.) on a 4 game winning streak. 2.) probably within a point or two of 2nd in the division 3.) equal to or ahead of the hate Maple Leafs in the standings. 4.) probably a top 10 team in the league standings 5.) probably top 10, or better, in goal differential. So this fanbase is going to need a lot more than that to get to a sellout streak. But if the Sabres just win 2 games in 2 nights, the way the fanbase views this team might be better than it has....well, in years.

At least the Sabres ECHL affiliate is doing well filling the Arena...

Last year I thought Krebs might have been the worst forward in the league for the first month of the season. As the year went on, he got better. By the end of the year, I was 'content' with is play. What has happened this year? I know he is playing the 4th line roll, but he isn't doing that great, and he is bringing nothing. He has to turn around his game right away somehow, but at this point I agree with many others, just replace him with Jost and this team is better. Okposo looks shot. Its not just the lack of production, but he looks one step slower than even last year, he isn't getting to guys on the forecheck like he was last year and he is a step slow to the boards in his own end. Again, he has the "C", and I'm not sure who from Roch you could replace him with in a 4th line role..but when I watch him, its almost like he is even 'slowing down' Girgensonns. I'd like to see Girgensons, Jost, and 'someone else' on that 4th line. Is Biro suited for a 4th line checking roll? Girgs, Jost, and Biro might be better than what they are putting out there now.

MSG-B is now available with the Spectrum choice (cheaper) plan. We signed up for it about a year ago, and at the time you couldn't get MSG with it for the Sabres games. At the time we signed up you got the ultra-basic cable channels and got to pick 12 stations. Along the way they must have made some changes. I called today because our bill was going up, but I found out that you now get to add 15 extra channels to the base channels with it, AND you now can add MSG to get the Sabres games. So maybe others have known about this. But for those that don't, you can downgrade your spectrum package or sign up for the cheapest option (spectrum choice) and MSG to get the Sabres games is now one of the channels you can add to it.

Time on ice is interesting, might be the best way to get a look at how the coaches think players are doing: Defense: Dahlin 24:13, Power 23, Samuelsson 21:09...then a huge drop to Jokiharju 16:50, Johnson 15:47, Clifton 15:29. I'd still like to see Dahlin a bit lower. Dahlin and Power are really the only D-men used on the PP all year. No one else has even been given a full PP shift. Johnson and Samuelsson dominate the PK ice time. Power and Clifton with some use. Dahlin basically not used on PK, which I am 100% fine with. Give him that time on the bench to rest. Forwards: No-one up front with more than 19 1/2 minutes. Spread out pretty evenly Thompson leads with 19:23 Tuch around 18. Skinner 17:22. Mitts at 16:22. Greenway rounds out the top 5. Most of the top forward around the league are well over 20 minutes per game, with the top guys on each team usually 21-22:30 per game. Cozens surprisingly only 15:50 per game. PP: Skinner, Thompson, Cozens and Tuch lead the way by far. They each have more than double the time of anyone else. PK: Greenway and Thompson lead the way (guess Granato likes the strategy of the forwards up high just hold your spot so lets get the tall guys with the big reach out there to disrupt the puck movement) Girgensons and Okposo and Tuch come next, no one else really used. Even strength, no one is getting more ice time than Mitts. Skinner is a half minute behind..EVERY other forward is at least a minute per game behind per game. I go back to the PK. PK minutes are dominated by Thompson, Greenway, Johnson, and Samuelsson. Two 6'6" guy up front and Two 6'4" on the back end. I can't help to think the strategy on the PK is 'chase the puck less' and more 'hold your position and use your size/wingspan/reach' to disrupt the lanes for puck movement.

I actually disagree with Cozens from last year. He has the potential to be good 2 way, and he certainly is aggressive, but last year I re-watched WAY too many goals where his over-aggressiveness had him out of position and he was one of the main reasons a chance was allowed. If/When he learns when to chase the puck with 100% effort vs when he is better to hold his position/spot on the ice, then he will be a very good to great 2 way forward. But do not confuse aggressiveness and chasing the puck for being good defensively. His positioning on many, many goals allowed last year was awful. I posted comments after watching a lot of replays, the story goes something like this...puck goes into the corner. Sabres D-man is going to the corner and will get to the puck first. Cozens decides to chase the puck there anyway being the 2nd man in, leaving his spot on the ice, but not impacting the play because by the time he gets there, the puck has already been moved. The loose puck gets pushed to the high slot where Cozens was but vacated that location to chase the puck, Center or D-man gets the puck un-opposed and walks right in for a scoring chance, goal allowed. If he would have stayed where he was positionally, the loose puck that came to the area, he might have even taken possession and gone the other way with it. Again, its good he is agressive and seems to push 100% out there, but he made a lot of positional mistakes that led to a lot of goals against last year.

The Bruins have played 8 games. In only one of them have they allowed more than 2 goals. They have pretty much split their Goaltending duties so far so its not just one hot goalie doing it for them. Maybe it wasn't just Bergeron and Kreiji...maybe their top 6 D-men are just WAY more solid top-to-bottom than most gave them credit for. Lets see how they play against the Leafs forwards, without McAvoy, later this week.

I'm kind of there with you. If the Sabres had even a slightly better goaltender, would they be a better team? Of course. But we see the guys they have on their team are capable of times of putting in good games. Maybe Comrie is better than he was last year...he was trying to play through an injury. Maybe UPL is the guy who just is going to need a lot of time to develop in someone who has the talent to be a good goaltender but he comes on a little bit later. Lots of maybes there but unless you went out and paid top dollar for Superstar goalie... And who would that be?...Any other goaltender you bring in you have no guarantee that they would actually be that much better than what you have here.

If the injury isn't something long-term....as some others have said it actually might be good for him. Allows him to stay with the team, allows him to watch the Sabres play in person, get coaching from the Sabres coaches, while not necessarily being on the ice all the time. Again, would it be better if he was eligible to go down to Rochester and not be injured? Sure. But without that being an option, him spending extra time with the big club and taking in the culture taking in the coaching, getting used to his potential future teammates may not be all that bad.

The last few years calling and asking for the better deal hasn't worked for me like it has in the past. I've talked to the initial customer service agent, even asked for the retentions department and a lot of times they simply will not give me any kind of promo package if I've had one in the past even years ago. The only thing that worked a couple years ago... After them telling me no... I actually canceled my entire cable package. Kept internet but nothing for TV. About a month later I got a flyer in the mail with a better price. When I called them to verify that's when they gave me the better price. But I actually went without any cable television for a month. That was a couple years ago, so I'm not sure if that's how the handle things now, but it got to the point where they absolutely would not give me a good price no matter who I talk to until I actually canceled.

5 of the 9 games last night were decided in OT or shootout. 2 of the remaining 4 were 1 goal games. 8 of the 9 games had one team that scored exatly 3 goals. Good night if you like close hockey.

Unfortunately I have not. MSG Plus seems to be a mess. You mentioned the price for Spectrum. Pirate feeds I would take a chance on and they tend to be pretty bad also. Just utterly amazing how difficult they can make it to see their product. I have a few smart speakers, one in my office and one in the garage. I USED to be able to ask it to play WGR and listen to the Sabres game over it. Sometime that year that even went away. In the past I was able to be inside the garage listiening to the game (can't get AM radio in there) over my smart speaker, and some genius with the NHL or the Sabres decided to make it even harder to do that.

I'm not picky with my pizza. I'll eat frozen pizza and like it (sometimes a lot). We have a cheap, amazon bought Betty Crocker Pizza maker (its basically a George foreman grill you put a small or medium pizza in) and it works fine for me. Places that offer "brick oven" pizza? Most of the time I hate it...thin burnt crust to me. Today and tomorrow 7-11 is offering Buy one, get one free on their pizzas (bake at home or they put it in there '2 minute' oven in the stores to cook). I'll be getting 2 of them tomorrow. More often than not when we do try pizza from a local place, its different each time, it has too much sauce or too little sauce. Sometimes its burnt, sometimes it isn't. I usually end up saying its simply not worth the $20+ for a large and end up going back to my decent, consistent frozen pizza, or "under $10 large" from Tops or $7 for 2 mediums with jalapenos and one other toping from Dominos.

Thumbs down just for the title of this thread. Dumb nickname.

I just think he was a great D-coordinator, but an average head coach. Average doesn't mean you are bad at everything, it means you are good at some things and bad at others. Maybe 'keeping the team together' was something he was good at, but again, if you look at that roster there was a LOT of turnover, so he didn't really keep it together, and a lot of the key pieces they added were because of Brady, not him. How many interviews have we heard now with former players who said they hated playing for Bellichick, and that the only reason they stated in New England was because of Brady and the chance to win? I don't know the number, but there have been a few of those. If anything, that is another strike against BB. Tony Dungy is another coach who I think was about average. Before he coached Manning, He was 56-46 (including the playoffs) and that was with a Tampa team that many considered to have a good roster (not average). But put him with Manning, he is now 98-33. That is a HUGE difference. Was he a great coach? So maybe we are splitting hairs here, I respect your opinion, and I'm not saying Bellichick was BAD. I just think you could have taken a bunch of other coaches, put them in control of New England, and they would have done just as good. Take some like Andy Reid and put him coaching that New England team over the same time, and I think they would have been even better.

I agree. Sure you can 'change things up' to make it less predictable, but to me your success on the PP is mostly about your talent level and luck. Scheme probably matters a bit, but not as much as many think. The team could use the exact same PP strategy in the next few games and if they score 2-3 more goals, then all will be well with the world. If the PP percentage/success rate drops to the bottom of the league and stays there for a few weeks (or longer), then sure, change things up.

Posted this before, but it probably is worth repeating now. Josh Allen is NOT one of those QB's who can play though an injury without it impacting his game in a very very large way: Last year Josh Allen got hurt in a November game against the Jets. The Bills played 11 games from then until the end of the year, including 2 playoff games. In those 11 games: Team was 8W-3L with 26.9 points per game. Allen completed 60.9% for 2701 yards, 19td, 11ints. In the previous 11 games (including 2 playoff games) before the injury (matching the 11 game number to get the best comparison): Team was 9W-2L with 31.1 points per game. Allen completed 69.4% for 3074 yards, 30td, 6 ints. Since his 'shoulder' injury this year, things look the same.